Porsche Reiterates that Cheap Sports Car is Kaputt

If you want a Porsche sports car priced below the $50,450 Boxster, buy a used one. The German automaker has ended any sort of room for speculation: It's willing to make a more affordable SUV to slot below the $49,825 Cayenne and not willing to make a more entry-level sports car."The extraordinary purchase experience is not for free and the entry price is currently covered with the Boxster and in the future Macan (small SUV)," says Porsche's head of marketing and sales, Bernhard Maier.The Porsche representative said the automaker plans on retaining a sense of exclusivity. That is, despite the fact that it wants to bump its last year's sales total of 117,000 to 200,000 by 2018. Maier then also said: "No matter what we build, we build sports cars.""We will always offer the sportiest and most exclusive vehicle in the segment."Since becoming part of the Volkswagen empire, Porsche seems to have lost the plot as to what it means to be a manufacturer of sports cars. In the U.S., Cayenne and Panamera sales far surpass those of the Boxster and 911 sports cars. A smaller, cheaper sports car may help offset that deficit. Contending with that notion, however, is the fact that the Cayenne and Panamera have allowed Porsche to make more specialty products like the upcoming Porsche 918 hybrid supercar.Maier says he doesn't want the automaker to ruin its exclusivity and prestige, but it sounds more like Porsche doesn't want to ruin those for its sports car lines. Let the masses buy a nice badge on the front of a re-engineered Volkswagen if it means the automaker can still profitably make the cars in the likeness envisioned by its founders. That's to say, while most of us may hate the fact that Porsche isn't going to be selling a sub-$40,000 car anytime soon, at least it's not giving up on making the cars that made us want a Porsche in the first place.Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)

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